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The exact sales of Microsoft's Surface RT tablets are the subject of a newly filed class action lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit alleges that Microsoft has issued "false and misleading statements" concerning the sales of its first PC hardware product, which Microsoft launched in October 2012. Not that they're selling, but that they are not selling
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Wow what people won't sue over.
I only got about half way thru that long winded complaint.
If they were stupid enough to buy in at that time on an iffy product then.....
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then....
They deserve to be protected from those that would take advantage of them by making misleading claims.
An alternative may be to allow companies to advertise whatever and however the hell they feel like and just write-off any problems with 'truth abberations' with the phrase "Well, if you were foolish enough to buy X, Y or Z...."
I've always viewed them (Surface RT) as a plastic brick. But the question is, am I clever through my own work and efforts, or am I lucky thanks to my genes and the tendencies they've imparted? Is someone unlucky to be unable to see through the falsehoods or are they too lazy to have educated themselves more thoroughly?
I used to think the answer was very straight-forward. I'm no longer so sure.  People are a lot more complicated than all of the things they construct.
"Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin
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If you read thru the complaint, from what I see their problem is Microsoft waited for the new physical year to declair it as a problem. Thus those that bought stock at that time lost money(when stock prices dropped) after the loss was reported.(only if they sold it lower though)
So by this I guess everyone that buys stock and looses money should file suite against the company and the top members of the company ?
New products are always a gamble, you never know how the potential customers will react to them.
From what I have read they have tried and failed in this area of the market before.
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Yeah, I just had a read through the complaint. A (very quick) search for 'Gail Fialkov' also fails to yield anything other than mention of the lawsuit. I'm not prepared to wager on whether she's pursuing it on behalf of a company, or for personal reasons.
EDIT: Just found the following, suggesting she's an investor rather than a purchaser.
"on behalf of plaintiff Gail Fialkov and others who bought Microsoft stock between April 18 and July 18"
As the claim mentions - there was no significant change in sales between the end of March and the end of June. (the end of the financial year - not the 'physical year', as you called it)
So, my understanding is that MS lost 11% of it's value when the figures became known in July. The allegation appears to target money that was lost after the revelations - money which, arguably, would have still been lost earlier had legal reporting guidelines been followed.
It's one thing to be an early adopter. It's another thing to own part of, or buy something from such a large company that is saying nothing more than "all is well", or at least, "OK".
Of all the keyboards and mice I've had over the years the Microsoft ones have felt the most rugged and of the best build quality. I quite like a number of their products, though I'd be lying if I said that the Surface RT seemed like anything more than a nightmare dressed-up as a pipe-dream.
I've considerably more sympathy for those holding Microsoft stock than those holding RTs. Though, each of the 3 entities must take some responsibility for their own actions. I just hope those bringing the claim against Microsoft aren't trying to shirk their own responsibilities.
It'll be interesting to see what happens.
"Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin
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I guess my question would be how much did that person invest and what would they have done differently if the report would have came out erlier. The stock would most likely have dropped then also.
I believe you are correct on that term, I had Physical year stuck in my head, I should have went back and verified the term.
I have never held one of those things so can't say what I think of them.
Yes it will be interesting to see what happens.
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As Tiobe factors in more sites in its assessment, Java rises, while C and Objective-C drop in the rankings "If all your friends jump off a bridge, will you too?"
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Which completely obscures that even a modified "number of hits in google" type index is basically worthless. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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I wonder if it accounts for all the new results created by new content announcing the results of the index...(e.g. now there will be a lot more "Java is the most popular language" content, resulting in more search hits for Java, further pushing up its rank)
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Actually, I think Tom below has the right reaction. Java devs just need the most help 
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TTFN - Kent
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According to a recently released ranking....
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44% of statistics are made up.
.-.
|o,o|
,| _\=/_ .-""-.
||/_/_\_\ /[] _ _\
|_/|(_)|\\ _|_o_LII|_
\._. |\_/|"` |_| ==== |_|
|_|_| ||" || ||
|-|-| ||LI o ||
|_|_| ||'----'||
/_/ \_\ /__| |__\
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With a 95% confidence, 19 times out of twenty.
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TTFN - Kent
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Only trust into the statistics you faked yourself... 
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An Apple without Steve Jobs? Larry Ellison dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. Wait long enough, and it's bound to be true
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Not really news. Apple suffered when Jobs left the first time, and appears to be stumbling now. What this tells you is that Jobs was not very good at building an organization that can stand without him. He was apparently a micromanager, and without him at the helm... It appears that Microsoft is starting to also suffer from not having Gates at the helm. However, it has taken longer for Microsoft to suffer than for Apple to suffer. I expect neither company will be around for the next century.
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Clifford Nelson wrote: I expect neither company will be around for the next century.
Definitely agree, in fact I'd say that none of the companies around now will be around in the next century. OK, maybe Sony: it seems no amount of bad judgement can make people move away from them.
Clifford Nelson wrote: What this tells you is that Jobs was not very good at building an organization that can stand without him.
Very true. Total cult of personality, and he bought into it as well. Next machines were nice (so I hear from the two people I've known that had access to them), but the company didn't do much.
People also forget at how poorly the iPhone and iPad were when first launched. Their mistakes just seem to catch the public interest more than others'.
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TTFN - Kent
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Samsung, IBM (as bad as that company really is), GM, Toyota, Honda, ...
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OK, I should have said, "tech companies".
Still not convinced about Samsung, but yeah: IBM will likely outlive everything other than head death of the universe.
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TTFN - Kent
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Guess IBM does not qualify as a tech company anymore. Sort of have to agree. Apple really is not a tech company either. More a marketing company.
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Actually, maybe some of those tech companies will survive because the government will consider them too big to fail.
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Clifford Nelson wrote: the government will consider them too big to fail
Aw, that trick never works
Yeah, I could definitely see a bailout happening for many of the top line IT shops (I'm looking at you, HP). Then again, I never thought the US government would allow the sale of IBM's laptop division to China.
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TTFN - Kent
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The sale of a laptop division now looks fairly irrelevant. Even then, it was hard to make a lot of money on intel computers, only the Mac was really making much money. Seems like if there is not a lot of profit in something, the Americans cannot make if affordably.
If they can make the chips, the rest really does not matter anyway. Getting the the point that the only thing the matters is the software, and that can be written pretty much anywhere.
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Clifford Nelson wrote: Getting the the point that the only thing the matters is the software, and that can be written pretty much anywhere.
That's the part that both worries me [1], and excites me (especially as I live anywhere).
[1] I just heard of another couple of internal projects at a customer (not here) heading "away". Fortunately, only one really affects me, but only by allowing me to mock it from afar.
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TTFN - Kent
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Microsofts slow demise is easy enough to explain. A tech company needs an engineer to run it.
Apple? That's a design company.
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
Abraham Lincoln
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